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The First Step
We Steal... A Lot "The Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with the First Step." a favorite saying of Damian's, honestly it annoyed me, especially considering our new quest was now taking us across the entire country, so that meant we were going several thousand miles. On foot. We had already been walking for going on two hours and, with where Camp Half-Blood is located, we weren't really near anything in the first place and weren't near anything now. It was never in me to hate, but every now and then I got really close to something like hate. "The worst you can muster is dislike, Lil." Damian said, basically reading my mind. "Stop that." I muttered. "Stop what?" he asked, feigning innocence. "Knowing me as well as you do." I replied. "Oh, but if I did that, then I wouldn't have the idea I do now." Damian said, that devious smirk on his face. "What is he talking about?" Ben asked. Poor guy. He just found out he was a demigod and now he's being dragged on a quest way before he was ready or even slightly adjusted to his new life. "He's going to steal something, most likely." I answered. I tried to make Ben feel better, in that way that only I can. "What? But that's against the law!" Ben exclaimed. "That's the thing," Damian said. "As the son of the god of thieves, I don't really care." Then Damian was gone. Another trick he had inherited from his father, Hermes. It was something like teleportation. Damian could travel just about where ever he wanted to in the blink of an eye and be back just as fast. When Damian reappeared, he was in a truck. He was also a few feet off of the ground. The truck then crashed to the ground, the suspension nearly gave out as the truck bounced on the ground. I ran over to the truck after it stopped leaving the ground and was simply rocking and I heard Ben following behind shortly after. Damian looked exhausted, he was sweating and was white knuckling the steering wheel. "What's the matter?" I asked. "Been a while." he replied. "Since what?" Ben asked, the nerves obvious in his voice. "Since I moved something this big like that." he answered, then promptly fell over across the bench seat. With Ben's help, we moved Damian over to the passenger's side and buckled him in. Ben sat in the middle and I got behind the wheel. It was the first time I had ever driven, but it wasn't like we had a choice. "I guess this is what the Oracle ment by Child of Philia must Steer." I muttered. "Too bad prophecies aren't always this simple..." "Um..." Ben muttered. I glanced over and saw that he was staring back, into the truck bed. I looked back and there was a tarp strapped down over the bed, covering it. But it looked odd, in a lumpy kind of way. I climbed out of the truck and moved to the back. I untied the tarp, only one knot. I guess Damian had tied it down because he enjoyed making this knot that looked complicated, but wasn't, and was strong enough to hold things down. Pulling the tarp away I saw a lot of stuff. A large tent, three sleeping bags, one of those kerosene stoves, kerosene tanks, enough food to last us a couple of weeks and three plastic bags that appeared to be filled with clothes. "Oh, Damian..." I muttered as I looked at all of it. Ben's shocked face was in the back window, fogging it up a bit. I covered the bed with the tarp again and tied it down. I then got back into the driver's seat and started the engine. The First Monsters I had been driving for about an hour and I wasn't too sure where we were as, like all demigods, I had trouble reading anything that wasn't in Greek. I think we were getting close to leaving New York, but I wasn't sure. Thankfully, Damian decided to wake up at that moment. "So, what did you dream about?" I asked. All demigods had dreams, they were almost always nightmares and usually helped us out on quests. "We're going to get attacked soon..." Ben said. "He dreamed of metal birds attacking us." "How'd you know?" I asked, then remembered. "Right, you're the Son of Nightmares, it would make sense that you would know that." "That," Damian said as he stared out the Passenger side window. "And the Birds are here." Looking out the window I saw a large flock of birds with sharp Celestial Bronze beaks and sharp metallic feathers that, if I remembered right, they could launch like arrows. As if to confirm what I thought, the nearest ones swung their wings at us and several feathers struck the truck. "I'm gonna need to borrow that bracelet of yours, Lil." Damian said. "What?" I asked. "I need to borrow your shield." he answered. "Why? What are you planning?" I asked, though I feared I already knew. "He wants to get out and fight them off." Ben said, vocalizing my fear. "No way!" I shouted. "I'll just drive faster!" "That won't work." Ben and Damian both said. I sighed in defeat. I was the one who was supposed to be leading this quest, but here I was, not leading. "Fine." I said and held out my arm so Damian could take the shield. He had it and was out the window faster than I could blink. Not surprising. "Focus on the road!" Damian called. His voice was almost impossible to hear over the wind. I did as I was told and kept my hands on the wheel, my knuckles turning white. Ben, sitting next to me looked nervous and worried and almost like he wanted to do something to help. "Hey, Ben," I said, trying to keep the worry out of my voice and sound confident and friendly. "Why don't you see what you can do to help? Maybe try and scare off the birds?" I saw him nod in my periphery. He then moved over to the Passenger side and then I returned my full attention back to the road ahead of us. For the next twenty minutes all I was aware of was the road, the feathers that hit the hood and the windshield and was vaguely aware of the ones that hit the roof over my head. Then smoke began pouring from under the hood, I guess some of those feathers hit the engine, and the truck coasted to a stop. "Birds are gone." Ben said. "Everybody alright?" I asked. While I was asking, I was aware that I had been completely tensed up and it was almost painful to let go of the wheel and to relax. "All good." Damian said, leaning down from the roof. Apparently at some point the windshield had shattered. Then I noticed that I had several cuts on my hands, arms, legs and face. Those were, more likely than not, due to the windshield breaking. "Plus," Damian continued. "We've now got all these feathers to use for weapons." "How?" Ben asked. He looked more exhausted than Damian did. "I can make something." Damian replied as he jumped down from the roof of the truck and onto the ground. "Though, it won't be anything like what the Hephestus Cabin could put out, it'll be better than nothing." "Sounds great..." I said as I painfully slid out of the truck. Category:Leengard Ustan Category:Diplomacy: Impossible Category:Chapter Page